Protectors of Emerald City

Hot Headed

Someone needs to cool off

15

NOV/15

Though Mr. Nice wanted to go directly to the police station to turn himself in, our heroes insisted he come with them to see Alexis, so that he could tell her his side of the story.

In a fairly drawn out scene in Alexis’ office, our heroes argued with Chad Marston, the Police Chief about jurisdiction. Chad expressed offense that the heroes had been meddling with normal crime (the allegations that the Lorenzos were trafficking drugs), while not bringing a super-powered murderer to justice (or even confining him). He asked our heroes to leave the rest of the investigation into the Lorenzos up to the police. Hoenheim argued back that they needed to investigate the Lorenzos in order to investigate Mr. Nice, but Alexis closed the case (at least, as far as the Chad Marston knew), by agreeing that the Protectors would leave the Lorenzo investigation alone.

As Chad made his way out of the building, he passed by Mr. Nice and K12 in the hallway. Mr. Nice asked the police chief whether he was arresting the Lorenzos, and Chad gave a noncommittal answer about getting a warrant and starting an investigation. This angered Mr. Nice, who proclaimed this was not what he signed up for, and stormed out of the building. What a hot-head.

Our heroes discussed where Mr. Nice might have went and what they should do next (Hoenheim voted for letting the police deal with it). As they were talking, Chad received a phone call. Mr. Nice was attacking the police station! “Guess that’s your problem”, Hoenheim declared, developing what will likely be a campaign-long feud between himself and Chad. The rest of the team felt differently, however, and rushed off to save the police force. Hoenheim followed, taunting Chad with a moonwalk as he did so.

When they arrived at the police station, our heroes found everything was quiet. The door to the station as ajar, and the blizzard was bringing snow and ice into the building. Just as our heroes were about to venture up the steps and inside the building, Mr. Nice emerged. “It’s you!” he exclaimed, blaming our heroes for turning against him. “You will pay!” he declared, before attacking the group and initiating the first round of combat in three sessions.

Mr. Nice slowed down our heroes a couple of times, but failed to cause any important effects to take hold. Our heroes easily hit Mr. Nice, but their effects seemed to do almost nothing. Even trapping him in a sphere had no effect, as Mr. Nice moved his center of ice-control outside of the sphere. This was until Hoenheim began using his transmutation to weaken the very essence of Mr. Nice’s Fortitude, reducing his ability to resist their attacks.

Having taken considerable damage, Mr. Nice solidified and dropped to the ground, absorbing water and ice from the air around him to heal. Dr. Tau and Hoenheim saw this as an opportunity to set up a combo attack. Hoenheim created nasty balls of spiky earth, which Dr. Tau heated up with a portal to his plasma source, and flung at the now-solid Mr. Nice. Only one of their two balls hit, but it hit with such force that it destroyed Mr. Nice, who broke into a few solid chunks and began melting next to the heat of Hoenheim’s giant balls.

Our heroes went inside to thaw the police they predicted they would find. The officers were thankful for being saved. Doctor Tau asked one of the officers whether they knew of any money being transferred between the Lorenzos and the police force. The officer told Tau that she had heard of police making shady deals on the side in general, but she hadn’t heard of anything with the Lorenzos, and certainly not on a large scale. It appeared to Doctor Tau that the officer was telling the truth.

Our heroes returned to Alexis to report on what had taken place. She cautioned that if the Protectors were to delve further in investigating police corruption, they should do so discretely, without attracting attention from the police.

The Protectors gathered for a slumber party at Doctor Tau’s installation. As the rest of our heroes slept, Hoenheim looked over the security footage that had been recovered from La Flamenco Vive. When everyone woke up, they reviewed the parts Hoenheim had deemed suspicious or noteworthy. The footage did not cover the front of the building, and the only vehicle that appeared on a regular basis was the morning garbage truck. Perhaps that would be worth checking out? The cameras in the building occasionally showed salt being brought in. There were also some periods where footage was missing.

The Protectors went to R to ask Shadow whether they could find a money trail between the police and the Lorenzos. Shadow proposed that they would help, provided the Protectors help Shadow capture something for them later, alive. Shadow explained it was something “not good” that lived within electrical wires and the net, and that physical intervention would be needed to capture it. Shadow stressed that they should make every effort not to destroy the thing. Our heroes agreed (though Witch remained reluctant), and went off to explore other routes of investigation into the police.

What will our heroes find? Are the police involved in an elaborate cover-up? Are those trucks hauling more than just garbage? Will the municipal waste management offices be more helpful to our heroes than Jean Placard? Is owing Shadow a favor really a good idea? Find out next time on Protectors of Emerald City!